Scott of Northwestern

Chapter 11 - Years of glory

And thus the former farm boy from Central Illinois led his Alma Mater out of the valley of doubt onto the hills of achievement. The years of this accomplishment were glorious years for Northwestern and for him.

As a boy on his father's farm Walter Dill Scott had set a goal for himself in the field of education, and he had attained that goal. He had pioneered in the study and teaching of experimental psychology, in the application of psychology, and in the classification of business and military personnel.

Asked to take over the administrative leadership of his Alma Mater, he hesitated, pondered carefully, weighed and balanced. But when he came to see the invitation as a call to duty, he hesitated no longer. He answered the call, accepted the new responsibility humbly but with deep inner assurance.

Soon he infected others with his confidence, gave his university a new purpose and new objectives, brought new and influential friends to its councils, and raised the money needed for the attainment of its new objectives. He did not do all this alone, of course. But he did do much of it himself, and his inspiring leadership played a major role in it all.

Some of the objectives he set for Northwestern were achieved during his administration, others after his retirement. Still others are so fundamental they will remain goals for years to come.

The presidency of Northwestern and the personality of Walter Dill Scott in his early 50s were a near-perfect match. With all his sense of calm self-assurance, Scott had doubts in 1920 as to whether he could lead his Alma Mater out of her impasse. The school had at the time an annual deficit of $100,000; its faculty was underpaid; its program was limited.

At the outset, many of Northwestern's professors felt that Scott was not the man for the job. Yet within a short while it became clear he was made for the position and the position for him. The expert in personnel classification, under whose direction millions of men had been placed in suitable positions and jobs, had found the position best suited to himself. That is why it seems so natural that he remained president of Northwestern not a mere four years, the average tenure of his predecessors, but for 19 years, and a half decade beyond the normal retirement age.

Fifty-one and fully mature when he took over as head man at the Evanston-Chicago seat of learning, he did not change greatly during the years he directed the university's course of action. Latent qualities were brought to the fore, but mainly his leadership as president of Northwestern brought to wide notice qualities discerning associates had perceived long before.

On assuming the presidency in 1921, Scott bought the three-story stone house at 1729 Chicago Avenue in Evanston that remained the family home until 1947. A distinctive and solid structure with gabled roof, high ceilings, and well-proportioned and spacious yard, it was worthy of being called a presidential mansion.

In this house Walter and Anna saw their two sons grow to full manhood. In this house and its adjoining garden they entertained people of Chicago and Chicago's North Shore; trustees of the university, administrative associates, businessmen active in promoting the interests of the university, faculty members, alumni, members of student organizations, and friends of the university in general.
Teas, dinners, receptions, garden parties, intimate conferences, holiday affairs—there were hundreds of these in this spacious and stately home. And for years the Scotts held open house following all of Northwestern's home football games.

Old residents of Chicago will remember the May Festival concerts sponsored by the North Shore Festival Association and Northwestern University. For a week in May each year the old James A. Patten Gymnasium put on gala attire. It was converted into a concert hall with a seating capacity of 1,500, including four rows of boxes with six seats each. A pipe organ was installed on the stage, and tiers of seats were set up for the chorus of a thousand voices. The old Thomas Orchestra, beloved of Chicagoans, occupied the pit.

The world's foremost singers and musicians participated in the programs, among them Madame Schumann-Heink, Melba, Alma Gluck, Galli-Curci, Lawrence Tibbett, Marian Anderson, and others equally renowned. During Festival Week there were four evening concerts for adults and a Saturday afternoon concert for children.

It was customary with the Scotts to invite guests to these concerts and to make the occasions especially festive by having their guests to dinner first. At one of these preconcert dinners the Scotts experienced one of their most embarrassing moments, a predicament that arose from a misunderstanding over an invitation to dinner.

Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Walgreen thought they had accepted for Tuesday evening. The Scotts were under the impression that the Walgreens had been asked to come to dinner and the concert on Thursday evening. On that particular Tuesday evening the Scotts had four other dinner and concert guests: Gen. Nathan William MacChesney (a trustee of the university) his wife, and Dean Ralph B. Dennis of Northwestern's School of Speech, and his wife.

After the dinner was well under way, Mrs. Scott, glancing out of the window, saw a car drive up. A gentlemen and a lady stepped out. "Oh," she cried, interrupting the conversation, "here come the Walgreens.
"Weren't you expecting them?" Mrs. MacChesney asked.
"No," replied Mrs. Scott. Then she tumed to Mrs. MacChesney, and said, "Lena, you take over, make places for the Walgreens while I hold them in the hall until you're ready. I hope they won't know."

Mrs. Scott met her unexpected guests and accompanied Mrs. Walgreen upstairs to lay aside her wraps. To gain a moment's extra time she pretended to mend an imaginary rip in her dinner gown. When Mrs. Scott returned to the dining room, Mr. Walgreen already was seated in the chair to Mrs. Scott's right.

In order to strengthen the impression the Walgreens had been expected, Mrs. Scott said to Mr. Walgreen: "I know you've had a long way to come. I hope you won't mind our having started dinner so early. But if we don't get to the gymnasium before the concert starts, the doors are locked, and we'd have a long wait, for the first number is a long one."

At this point Dr. Scott spoke up. "Mr. Walgreen," he announced, "knows he wasn't expected until Thursday night. I've told him." Everyone laughed.

The tension eased, everyone got to talking, each relating experiences resulting from similar mistakes. But all through the dinner Mrs. Scott kept thinking about the box for six, with eight people to accommodate. However, Gen. MacChesney solved that problem by quietly slipping away after dinner with Dean Dennis. They drove to the gymnasium and somehow conjured up two more box seats near the Scott box, and there they sat with great composure when the rest of the party arrived.

Then there was the time the Scotts asked the Oriental students on the campus to a Sunday night buffet. The Chinese came promptly, but not a single Japanese student appeared. After some waiting and much telephoning the Scotts learned the Japanese were not planning to come. "Did not the President and his wife know the
Japanese would not break bread with the Chinese?" he was told. And after that rebuff the two groups were never invited to the Scott home together.

Then again there was the reception for the celebrated French military leader, Marshal Joffre. Awarded an honorary degree by Northwestern, he was afterward entertained at a tea in the Scott home. However, most of the guests hardly got a word with him, for a beautiful lady who spoke French fluently monopolized his attention. All during the tea she plied him with questions about his country, which she was planning to visit shortly, and before the marshal left, she had made arrangements to continue the acquaintanceship in France,

The affairs at the Scott home during the years of his presidency were delightful and stimulating. People were made to feel at ease. The dinners and teas became famous. The Scotts never served cocktails before dinner, but their substitutes for cocktails became especially popular.

On cold winter nights a small table would be set before the wood burning fireplace. On the table were soup cups and plates, hot and cold appetizers, stuffed celery, and olives. Men the guests were assembled, a large silver tureen of clam bouillon or of clear soup was brought in and served to them around the fire.

In summer soft cold drinks and appetizers were served before dinner in the charming walled-in garden to the rear of the house. Lively talk marked these occasions and friendships grew out of them.

These years, the years of Walter's presidency, were thus pleasant as well as glorious for the Scotts. But they were trying, too, and at times troublesome. As a university president, he had to bear at least partial responsibility for the burdens and misdeeds of many students and teachers and even of outsiders who somehow became entangled in the life of the university.

Take the case of a reporter for a Chicago newspaper who angered Northwestern students by sensational and false accounts of their activities. He persisted in this so long that a group of irate undergraduates tossed him into Lake Michigan. Infuriated, he vowed revenge. Some time later a skeleton was found under a pier on the lake shore near Northwestern's Evanston campus. Attempts were made to identify the skeleton as that of a freshman who had disappeared. Several students were arrested, among them President Scott's older son, John Marcy Scott. The newspapers of Chicago made a big to-do over the mysterious coincidence even after it became clear that the skeleton had been planted beneath the pier and the whole thing was a hoax.

More routine misdemeanors were acts of violence perpetrated during "Hell Week." After some ominous stone-throwing episodes resulted in the injury or near-injury of passers-by, the fraternities themselves called a halt to this type of roughness. But meanwhile Scott had to make apologies on the one hand and pleas for restraint on the other.

During Scott's administration, Northwestern forged ahead in athletics just as it did in intellectual, artistic, and social service accomplishments. Football championships were won, Olympics stars were developed, track and field records were broken, outstanding basketball teams were turned out.

A many-sided athlete himself, Scott went ice skating with his wife occasionally even after he became president. And he once played in a faculty ice-hockey game with such abandon that he broke his nose. He plays golf regularly even now at the age of 82.

He always has taken a balanced attitude, however, toward the question of cohege athletics. He believes strongly in both intercollegiate and intramural sports, but he has frequently gone out of his way to emphasize his conviction that winning is much less important than widespread participation in athletic activity.

He felt impelled nevertheless, at times to console the university after its football team suffered crucial defeats. And at other times, when the team was a rip-roaring winner, he was plagued with innuendoes-which he ridiculed-charging that star players were paid and allowed to slip through their courses.

Like nearly all university presidents in America the past 40 years or so, he had to contend with such problems as discrimination or alleged discrimination against minority groups and radicalism or alleged radicalism on the campus. How Northwestern met the minority problem during Scott's administration is best told in a statement issued by Scott in 1935:
"The race problem has caused but little difficulty at Northwestern University. We have no fixed rules or regulations concerning the interrelationships between students of different religions, nationalities and colors. We guarantee equality of treatment so far as Northwestern University as a strictly educational institution is concerned.
"In any relationships outside of the strictly educational the cases are considered on their merit. We do not desire that any one case should become a general precedent. The greatest good to the greatest number is, however, the general policy we wish to follow.
"If in a dormitory the majority of the students resent the presence of any student, no matter whether the resentment is based on color or otherwise, the matter is taken up by the dean of men or women and considered on its merits.
"At the beginning of the present semester two colored boys desired to live in one of the men's dormitories. Before they were assigned rooms the administration informally tested out the attitude of the occupants of the dormitory. The attitude was in general entirely favorable. Accordingly, the university permitted the two colored boys to move into the dormitory."

Dr. T. K. Lawless, a famous and outstanding skin specialist, was on the Northwestern faculty from 1923 to 1940. Another Negro who has served on its faculty is Dr. Edward W. Beasley. And in 1944, five years after his retirement from the presidency, Dr. Scott served as chairman of the Chicago area in a campaign to raise funds for private Negro colleges in the United States.

As for radicalism, he once stated categorically that there were no communists among the members of Northwestern's faculty. On the other hand, he invited stich dissenters as Norman Thomas and Clarence Darrow to lecture on the campus. Worth recalling in this connection is what might be broadly termed his religious, political, and economic credo as enunciated on January 25, 1935:

"In the American universities and colleges subversive propaganda is not as dangerous as is indifference. The suppression of error is less effective than is the spread of truth.
"Historically there has been in the American universities and colleges insufficient interest in such fields as religion, political science and economics. I am a Christian but I do not believe that Christianity would be advanced by persecuting the Jews. I am a Republican but I do not believe that votes would be secured for my party by a denial of freedom of the press to the Democrats.
"I am a believer in capitalism but I do not believe that adherence to capitalism is reduced by experiments in socialism. In religion, in politics and in economics the truth is not endangered by propaganda on the part of heretics but by indifference on the part of the orthodox. The best way to promote democracy is to present in universities and colleges the truth and the whole truth on democracy, fascism, nazism, communism, and militarism. . ."

As a university president in a metropolitan center his judgment and guidance were sought on all manner of public questions, and he was asked to participate in an almost unlimited variety of public functions. He traveled over the country and addressed alumni meetings in many cities in the interest of Northwestern. He spoke at other universities.

He participated in the installation of Robert M. Hutchins as president of the University of Chicago, of Father Michael J. O'Connell as president of DePaul University, of Raymond A. Kent as president of Louisville University. He spoke out against the weakening of the Chicago public schools during the depression of the 1930's.

He addressed such bodies as the United Methodist Council and took part in such exercises as the dedication of the Jewish People's Institute, a new building in Chicago's Lawndale district, where he made a number of observations regarding life in a large American city. He said, in part:
"The inhabitants of Chicago must adjust themselves, to an environment that is relatively new to the human race. For one hundred centuries our ancestors lived in rural communities and in direct contact with nature. Within the family itself provision was made for food, clothing, shelter and all other of our human necessities.
"In these hundred centuries they ... learned to control the forces of nature, but never learned how to live together successfully in great cities. People that congregated in great cities seem to have degenerated or at least seem unable to survive unless constantly reinforced by migrations from rural districts.
"If Chicago is to survive it must avail itself of every possible agency that is organized to extend a helpful hand to the city dweller. Since the Lawndale Building of the Jewish People's Institute is such an agency it is welcomed by all who are interested in the welfare of our great city.
"Chicago is a city of mixed people. Wherever peoples of different races, religions, colors and cultures have come together conflicts have resulted. In many cases the stronger has annihilated or subjugated the weaker. Rarely have two peoples ever united as peers.
"The chosen people under Joshua annihilated or subjugated the peoples of Canaan. Alexander with his Creek army subjugated the nations of Europe, Asia and Africa. Caesar subjugated the nations of Europe. White traders invaded the jungles of Africa for human merchandise. White men of America have virtually eliminated the red men.
"Of all the peoples in the City of Chicago each has inherited the traits of the conqueror, and the fears, suspicions and hatred of the conquered. In such a human environment the demagogue may secure votes for himself by inflaming hatred against a single people. An unfortunate circumstance may lead to race riots and the possibility of peace is dependent upon the maximum utilization of all the forces that make for peace. This institute is an agency that from now on will exercise a helpful influence in promoting peace, and as such is welcomed by all who are interested in this great cosmopolitan center.
"This occasion is important because Chicago may be benefited by Judaism. Although the army of Alexander destroyed individuals and forms of government, the Greek peoples gave to these same nations the love of truth, and the love of beauty, which has increased greatly the opportunities of happiness of all the world. Although the legions of Caesar ruthlessly destroyed, the philosophers of Rome gave to the world a system of laws that has contributed to the stability of governments. The German army did not hesitate to destroy cathedrals and libraries, but their educators have given to the world a devotion to science and to its application that is essential for the progress of civilization. Judaism is not properly represented by Joshua, but rather by Moses and Isaiah.
"The Jewish people destroyed thousands but benefited countless millions by the leadership which it has sustained in religion and ethics. To this people we owe the ethical conception of God; the development of the idea of the fatherhood of God; the emphasis on obedience to law; the preservation and sanctity of the home; and the demand that justice be had for all. These ideals of Judaism are essential to the very existence of Chicago.
"The peoples of every nation having a worthy ideal or practice should organize schools, universities, chapels, cathedrals, tabernacles, settlement houses, institutes,
and all forms of social service agencies, in order that these worthy ideals and practices might become effective in the lives of our peoples."

At the university Scott had to function continually not only as an administrator but as a guide, counsellor, intermediary, and arbiter. On and off the campus he was quoted on everything from religion to woman's fashions.

He encouraged creative thinking and experimentation at Northwestern and advanced academic freedom. Though he believed that higher education should not be limited to the most intelligent, he gave his full support to special projects for selected groups of precocious youngsters at his university.

No worthwhile campus activity was overlooked by him. Commencement exercises, candle-lighting ceremonies traditional at Northwestern, Dad's Day, welcoming of freshman classes, opening of new dormitories, inauguration of new courses, musical performances, presentation of plays, art exhibits, athletic contests, debates, processions of various types—one and all were stimulated, inspired, enriched by his interest, presence, participation.

Mrs. Scott, too, was active on and off the campus. Her graciousness as a hostess, her tact and friendliness in receiving guests and making their visits in the presidential home stimulating and diverting were of inestimable value to the university.

Aside from these accomplishments she won wide and appreciative attention through the poetry she wrote. In 1933 she wrote her first Christmas carol, "The Lost Star," at the request of the University Guild of Evanston for its Twelfth Night dinner.

In 1937, ten of Mrs. Scott's Christmas poems were published as songs for which Dr. Betheul Gross, Chicago composer and choir director, had written the music. She wrote several the previous summer while vacationing with her husband in the Adirondacks. Among these were: "Father, Send a Child Again," "A Sword Shall Pierce Her Heart," "A Little Chfld Shall Lead Them , "Mary's Cradle Song," "In Every Steepled Town," "Along the Years that Bridged His Way," and "Above the Hills of Judah." Writing on sacred and awesome subjects that have inspired poets throughout the Christian world for 1900 years, Mrs. Scott managed to infuse into them the stamp of her own personality. Her verses are alive with fresh emotional experience and a sense of intimacy. Particularly moving is "Mary's Cradle Song" with its soothing rhythm, its utter simplicity, its deep motherliness.
Other poems by Mrs. Scott on the same general theme and set to music by Dr. Gross are: "If I Had Lived in Bethlehem," "The Star and the Angel," " O Winter Sun, Wrap Mary with Your Warmth," "The Night Has Fallen Asleep," and "O Thou Whose Birth Made Holy."

A number of these poems are woven into Mrs. Scott's Christmas oratorio, "The Mass of Christ," for which Dr. Gross also composed the music. It was first performed in December, 1940, at the St. James Methodist Church in Chicago.

So it was a productive period for both Walter and Anna, these 19 years during which he stood at the helm of his Alma Mater. In addition to everything else he wrote magazine articles, though not nearly as many as he had before assuming the presidency. During this period appeared the first and second editions of Personnel Management, written by Scott in collaboration with Robert C. Clothier. The third and fourth editions of this comprehensive volume, which brings Scott's ideas on the problems of personnel in business and industry down to the present, were published in 1941 and 1949 respectively. In the last two of these there was a third collaborator—William R. Spriegel.

A different type of book to which Scott contributed during his presidency of Northwestern is Society Today, edited by Baker Brownell, and published in 1929. Chapters for this volume were written also by Edwin E. Slosson, F. S. Deibler, W. E. Hotchkiss, and Stuart Chase.

"The democratic distribution of power," says Scott in his chapter, entitled the "New Energies and the New Man", "is producing striking economic changes in the American people. The possession of power and the acquisition of wealth go hand in hand. Historically, the average man possessed but little power and accumulated but little surplus of this world's goods. An appreciable proportion of the human race lacked even the necessities during unfavorable seasons. There was a lack of nourishing food, of warm clothing, and of decent living quarters.
"Poverty was general, and such a poem as 'Over the Hill to the Poorhouse' had a vivid meaning to our ancestors of even a generation ago. The average citizen of America today possesses great power and shares in the benefits of much more. The power in his environment has given him unprecedented wealth. He not only has much money, but he has even more credit. He buys appetizing food and fine raiment. He lives in quarters that contain luxuries unknown to the aristocrats of former ages. He possesses a surplus of this world's goods, and may therefore be spoken of as a rich man. He is possessed of all the opportunities, and all the responsibilities, of all the ambitions and all the temptations of the rich.
"The accumulation of power, and particularly of mechanical power, is resulting also in profound industrial changes in our people. We are told that the coming of the machine has destroyed the dignity of labor; that the monotony of tending a machine deadens the interest and the initiative of the workers. Such an interpretation is unwarranted. The machine relieves the worker of the monotony of toil. It enables the machine tender to accomplish in eight hours what would otherwise necessitate the drudgery of many workers from 10 to 15 hours a day.
"The machine converts many workers from drudges into artisans and converts a few from drudges into artists. The gnarled hand, the halting gait, and the stooped shoulders have ceased to be a common characteristic of the industrial worker. The machine has reduced the hours of daily toil, has definitely added dignity to labor, and has immeasurably improved the status of the working man.
"The great accumulation and democratic distribution of power is accompanied by profound moral changes. The lack of power encourages a double standard of morality one standard for the home folk and quite another standard for foreign folk. Power has given us such improved forms of transportation and communication, that this double standard is waning. Provincialism, under the guise of patriotism, is dying hard, but world-mindedness is developing, and the single standard of morality is winning converts. . . .
"The accumulation and the democratic distribution of power is also changing the religious ideals of the American people and the fundamental motives to which they respond.
"A people without power is inclined to see God in the thunderbolt, the storm-cloud, and the devastating plague; they are inclined to conceive God as a great potentate, who demands humility, patient endurance, and sacrifices. For them the most impelling motive to action is the avoidance of pain. Their greatest concern is to escape such evils as hunger in this life and eternal punishment in the life to come.
"A people possessing great power is inclined to see God in the minute electron, in the immense Betelgeuse, and in the eternal evolutionary processes. They are inclined to conceive of God as the Heavenly Father who causes all things to work together for good. For them the most important motive is pleasure. Their greatest concern may be to acquire great possessions in this world and eternal bliss in the world to come, or else to advance the well-being of their fellow men and to merit enduring social approval.
"To a people lacking power, poverty may seem to be a virtue, and the life of penury and sacrifice may be regarded as the highest form of religious life. By Americans the possession of riches may be regarded as a sacred trust, and a life of generous service as the highest form of religious life.
"To a people lacking in power, this world is a place of labor and of sorrow. -Consolation can be achieved only in the thought of another world-in a New Jerusalem, a city resplendent with jewels and precious metals. To Americans this present world offers infinite possibilities. Their ambition is not merely to prepare for a future world, but also to make the most of this by changing it into an ideal abode. . . . '

The year 1929 saw the appearance of two other books in the writing of which Scott collaborated. One was Charles Deering—An Appreciation. The co-author was Robert M. Harshe, then the director of the Art Institute of Chicago. The other was Man and His Universe.

Ten years later Scott's book on John Evans, founder of Evanston and one of the moving spirits in the establishment of Northwestern, came off the press.

All through the years of his presidency he paid his respects to public figures who had rendered noteworthy service to the community. Most of them, naturally, were men and women who had played a part in the advancement of Northwestern, but not all. He made discerning characterizations of such people as Henry Wade Rogers and A. W. Harris, former presidents of his school; of Prof. James A. James, Mrs. A. Montgomery Ward, James A. Patten, William A. Dyche, Oliver T. Wilson, Elbert H. Cary, Milton H. Florsheim, Charles Thorne, Julius Rosenwald, Jane Addams, and Melvin Traylor.

The mention of Melvin Traylor brings to mind that had he not died when he did Northwestern and the University of Chicago might today be one institution. Scott and Hutchins had, around 1930, come to the conclusion that it would be mutually advantageous for the two schools to merge.

Many of the more prominent alumni of Northwestern and other of its supporters were ardently opposed to the idea, and voiced their views vehemently. However, Mr. Traylor, then president of Northwestern's board of trustees, strongly favored it. His suggestion was to let the opposition wear itself out, and then to come forward calmly with a carefully prepared plan for the union of the two great universities. But before that came about he died, and the project was dropped.

Scott also favored the fusing of the Armour Institute of Technology with Northwestern's School of Engineering, but that, too, failed to materialize.

These merger proposals were in harmony with his appreciation of Chicago's eminence as an educational center and his eagerness to make the most of the possibilities along that line.

So the years rolled on, and Scott's term in the presidency drew to an end. He held that office nearly five times as long as the average and nearly twice as long as any of his predecessors. Moreover, he retained it five years beyond the regular retirement age. Finally, however, the time came for him to bow out. In 1939 he had reached the age of 70 and completed 19 years of service. The time had come for him to step out so that his successor, Franklyn Bliss Snyder, might step in.

In paying tribute to Scott's contribution to Northwestern, a special issue of its Alumni News in 1939 cited Emerson's saying that "an institution is but the lengthened shadow of a man." While it is difficult to delineate the scope and results of his service, certain developments may be pointed out as representative of Scott's accomplishments.

Among them are the full scale development of the Chicago campus; the construction of the beautiful Women's Quadrangles on the Evanston campus; the erection of the Charles Deering Library; the establishment of the School of journalism, the School of Education, the University College; provision for the Technology Institute; the increase of attendance in adult education courses from 2,598 to 13,492; the establishment of the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory, the Air Law Institute, and the Traffic Safety Institute; the development and expansion of medical, dental, and legal clinics giving service to 80,000 persons annually; the transformation of a primarily Evanston university into an Evanston-Chicago institution with prominent Chicagoans on its board of trustees.

In addition, though the full-time enrolment of the university had increased 30 per cent, the proportion of students from the upper half of their high school classes had been increased from 65 to 90 per cent. And in line with his emphasis on psychology and the problems of personnel, Scott encouraged the development of a tutorial system, providing without cost additional instruction in difficult subjects for students needing assistance. He also was instrumental in setting up a counseling service to help students solve financial, vocational, religious and social problems.

In June, 1939, were held the final commencement exercises of Scott's administration. Degrees were awarded to 1,850, then the largest graduating class in Northwestern history. It consisted of students from 44 states and 14 foreign countries.

On May 1 of the same year, his 70th birthday, Dr. Scott turned the first spade of earth on the site selected for Scott Hall. This splendid $750,000 university social center and community auditorium at Sheridan Road and University Place in Evanston was made possible by contributions from more than 11,000 donors. The fund was raised under the direction of Harold H. Anderson, chairman of the Scott Hall Committee.

Constructed of Indiana limestone in Gothic style, it commemorates the services of Walter Dill Scott and his wife, Anna M. Scott. Most appropriately it has lounges, an auditorium, a grill, offices, committee rooms, conference rooms, and recreational facilities and social room for the use of both student and community civic and cultural organizations.

Scott Hall was opened with a dedicatory concert in its Cahn Auditorium. Dr. Beatty, Dean of the School of Music, asked Mrs. Scott to write words for a dedicatory hymn for this concert. Called "Hymn to Scott Hall," it was read by Prof. James Lardner of the School of Speech in February, 1941, to the accompaniment of a musical background composed by Dr. Albert Noelte.

The music was played by the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra.

Later the same year Prof. Lardner gave a second reading of the same poem, this time in connection with the presentation of the Anna Miller Scott fountain now standing in the hall's sunken garden. This fountain was contributed by the Beta Chapter of Alpha Phi Sorority and the University Circle, an association of faculty wives of which Mrs. Scott was the first president.

Mrs. Scott's hymn, inscribed on a brass plaque and appropriately framed, now hangs in the Scott Hall woman's lounge. It is quoted here in full as a symbolic postlude to the story of Scott's leadership:

Holy Spirit, Thou who has created beauty
On the earth for man's delight,
May this Hall to beauty shaped
Find favor in thy sight.

Formed of substances Thou has bestowed on earth
For use of man, these mortared stones
That give enduring strength
To wall and tower
Proclaim Thy praises and Thy power.

Beneath this roof may Hospitality and Peace
Have dwelling place;
Within these walls may Wisdom walk with Learning
And Mirth and Laughter have their hour;
Here-Music weave its spell,
Here-Friendships flower
Take easy root to blossom through the years.

If ever loneliness upon the threshold hesitating stands
Then may Good Fellowship put forth its hands
To open wide the door.
But if sometime within this Hall,
The chalice of some heart should break, may there,
Be gentle hands to know the art of mending.

When winter dusks are slipping into night,
About these hearthstones may there end
Many a 'Perfect Day'
With friend companioning with friend.

For those endowed with talent, skilled
To plan for beauty and with beauty build,
We give Thee thanks;
Bless those who labored here; bestow
On them the boon of health;
Give them to know
The high reward of Pride in workmanship.

Teach all who linger in this gracious Hall
To savor life with gracious living;
But most of all
Incline them in their hearts to ponder
"Quaecumque sunt vera,
Proba, justa, mera," 1

Holy Spirit, on this Hall
And all who enter here
Let benedictions fall.

Amen.
1 - 'These Latin lines are the opening words of the Northwestern University hymn.